Professor Stephen Graham

Remodelling of membrane architecture and composition by viruses

Neurotropic viruses

Viral evasion of innate immunity

Research

Stephen is interested in understanding how viruses change the composition and architecture of intracellular membranes, and how they evade immune recognition by the host. His team studies this using a broad range of biochemical, biophysical and cell biology techniques, ranging from cell-based models of infection and proteomics to biophysical analysis and atomic-resolution structures of protein complexes. This research provides fundamental insights into virus biology and virus:host interactions that underpins the development of future anti-viral therapies and virus-based biologics.

Publications

Key publications:

G. Gallo, A. Di Nardo, D. Lugano, A.J. Roberts, B.A. Kutima, M. Okombo, A.K. Dewantari, F.M.M. Buckley, G.J. Wright, J. Nyagwange, B. Agwanda, S.C. Graham^, D. Bailey^ (2026) Heart-nosed bat alphacoronaviruses use human CEACAM6 to enter cells. Nature, 653: 180–189 [doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10394-x]
M.K. Merchant, J. de Paula Souza, S. Abdelkarim, S. Chakraborty, T.A. Nasser Neto, K.I. Gutierrez Manchay, D.M. de Melo Jorge, V. Alves do Nascimento, Y. Sun, E.R. Caroe, L.E.A. Eyssen, J.S. Rudd, I.C. Ribeiro Piauilino, S. Damasceno Pinto, M.H. Pereira da Silva, F. Rocha do Nascimento, F. Gomes Naveca, J.L. Proenca Modena, L.L.P. daSilva, R.M. Pinto de Figueiredo, R.J. Owens, E. Arruda^, S.C. Graham^ (2025) Protein-based tools for the detection and characterisation of Oropouche virus infection. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 17: 2462–2482 [doi: 10.1038/s44321-025-00291-7]
K.L. Nahas, V. Connor, K.J. Wijesinghe, H.G. Barrow, I.M. Dobbie, M. Harkiolaki^, S.C. Graham^, C.M. Crump^ (2025) Applying 3D correlative structured illumination microscopy and X-ray tomography to characterise herpes simplex virus-1 morphogenesis. eLife, 14: RP105209 [doi: 10.7554/eLife.105209]
B.G. Butt*, D. Fischer*, A.R. Rep*, M. Schauflinger, C. Read, T. Böck, M. Hirner, F. Wienen, S.C. Graham^, J. von Einem^ (2024) Human cytomegalovirus deploys molecular mimicry to recruit VPS4A to sites of virus assembly. PLoS Pathogens, 20: e1012300 [doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1012300]
K.L. Nahas, V. Connor, K.M. Scherer, C.F. Kaminski, M. Harkiolaki^, C.M. Crump^, S.C. Graham^ (2022) Near-native state imaging by cryo-soft-X-ray tomography reveals remodelling of multiple cellular organelles during HSV-1 infection. PLoS Pathogens, 18: e1010629 [doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010629]
T.H. Benedyk, J. Muenzner, V. Connor, Y. Han, K. Brown, K.J. Wijesinghe, Y. Zhuang, S. Colaco, G.A. Stoll, O.S. Tutt, S. Svobodova, D.I. Svergun, N.A. Bryant, J.E. Deane, A.E. Firth, C.M. Jeffries, C.M. Crump^, S.C. Graham^ (2021) pUL21 is a viral phosphatase adaptor that promotes herpes simplex virus replication and spread. PLoS Pathogens, 17: e1009824 [doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009824]
B.G. Butt, D.J. Owen, C.M. Jeffries, L. Ivanova, C.H. Hill, J.W. Houghton, M.F. Ahmed, R. Antrobus, D.I. Svergun, J.J. Welch, C.M. Crump, S.C. Graham (2020) Insights into herpesvirus assembly from the structure of the pUL7:pUL51 complex. eLife, 9: e53789 [doi: 10.7554/eLife.53789]